February 17th: Marblebush

Snarg freezes for several seconds as the Tusker sniffs him, then begins sniffing the Tusker in the same fashion. After several whiffs, he reaches up and unfastens the metal jaw attachment. "Jus' lil piece o' metal. Ain't nothin' bein' wrong, see?" He allows the Tusker to examine the jaw attachment.

"...Okay then. I will go back to sleep."

The town seemed to have survived Araiguna's transformation. So he decided to go back to Z's camp.

*Z seats herself on the entry stair to one of the nearby homes.*

"So much for sleep... Snarg see if you can get him to come over here a bit."

"Er, aight. Maybe ya wantin' to be comin' 'ere fer me, yep yep?" Snarg nods to the Tusker and slowly begins stepping over to Z, looking back at him as he goes.

The Tusker lumbers over towards Z and Snarg, and sniffs at the Dwarf, who pats his tusked head appreciatively. "There there Araiguna, nothin' hurtin' ya here. Friends!"

Snarg loops his arm around the Dwarf's shoulders in a firm grip, encouraging him to follow along with the rest of them. He reattaches his metal jaw and speaks to him in a calm but pointed manner. "I think there's still some questions you need to answer too. Let's all gather over here with your friend Araiguna. Now, I'm curious to know why you aren't even batting an eye at Araiguna's condition." He points at the Tusker. "You really think this is healthy for a Mite ... for anyone here? If he got this from going into the ruins, don't you think there's some cause for concern if he's been giving you the stuff that did this in the first place? You don't even have some of that stuff anymore - there's no telling where it is."

The Dwarf, who struggles briefly but fruitlessly in Snarg's grasp, grumbles. "Course it ain't normal. We've tried everythin' we know to fix 'im, but there ain't nothin' for it. But whot you expect of us?" He looks up, almost accusingly. "Oh hey, a friend o' ours turns into a bleedin Tusker every night, please help? Don't be ridiculous. Half the people wouldn't believe us, the other half would come with weapons drawn! So we been askin' around quiet like while he just kinda roams the square, doin' no real harm cept forcin people to not really get much sleep. So if you got any ideas, I'm all ears."

"Oh, okay. I guess the next time someone I know saves my entire town, I should just 'ask around quietly' about their ailment since no one would believe me anyway." Snarg spits on the ground and sighs, shaking his head. "This ... isn't the time to be mocking, yes? I'm worried about him and it really doesn't help a whole lot to be doing that."

The Dwarf pats Snarg on the shoulder. "Well, sonny, I admits I'm glad to see ye and yers. See, my son had an idear none of us could follow up on...." He points northwards, in the direction of the limestone quarry. "Somethin' in dem ruins changed 'im, right? Maybe fixin' it's down thar too... We, uh," he looks down. "We haven't been down there ourselves, scared, honest. Araiguna told us 'bout the traps, and the beasts that were thar, s'why we were so grateful to 'im for helpin' us out, see? Cuz we couldn't do nothin' down there." He gestures. "We're just miners and old folk, adventurin' ain't in our blood. But you guys," he pokes Snarg in the chest, "You look like you could handle yourselves. Long as yer careful," he adds hastily, "don't want more Tuskers runnin' about, yah?"

Snarg nods. "I'd hope it's down there. After all, some of the items aren't there any more." He scratches his ear. "Might want to dig up some of those sales records just in case. Maybe I can get Araiguna here to settle down. I don't want to be following him around town all night." Snarg takes a seat, indicating to the Tusker to sit beside him. "Unless someone wants to take a watch for a few hours, I'm going to need a nap before we check out the ruins in the morning."

As the rest of the group goes back to the Inn, Ashakel follows Snarg to Z's camp. "Hey Snarg, I wouldn't mind keeping first watch, go ahead and sleep a bit. I'll take care of him", Ashakel nods towards the Tusker.

"Alright, Ari, let's be nice... People here wanting to have some sleep. We'll fix those ruins tomorrow, I promise ya that."

The Tusker sniffs Ashakel's hair a bit, then promptly thunders off and begins banging the ground loudly with the palms of his hands, cracking the stone and rock. This continues for some time before he seems to tire of this, and begins wandering in random patterns throughout the town square.

"Alright, alright. Wake me in a few." Snarg plops down and curls up to try and sleep.

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